The Buffy and Angel Trivia Guide

Episode Trivia

Aimee Mann

details | 12 comments | suggested by Jess

Aimee Mann performs two songs from her 2002 album ‘Lost in Space’ in the Bronze in the episode 7.08 Sleeper: ‘This Is How It Goes’, and ‘Pavlov’s Bell’ (as Spike and the female vampire fight). Aimee also has a line in the show, “Man, I hate playing vampire towns”. No other musical guest has spoken on the show before.

Alan Levi

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Alan Levi, who directed the episode 7.08 Sleeper, has had a varied career. He was a director on The Fugitive TV series, JAG, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, ER, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Columbo, Quantum Leap, Miami Vice, Fame and The Invisible Man.

And on to…

details | add a comment | suggested by Jess

The episode 7.08 Sleeper starts exactly where 7.07 Conversations With Dead People finished. Everyone is in the same clothes, and we find out the reason why Xander wasn’t in the last episode (he says he sometimes sleeps at night). Meanwhile, Spike buries the woman he killed at the end of that episode.

Billy Idol

details | 15 comments | suggested by Jess

In 7.08 Sleeper, Buffy asks a bouncer at a club if he’s seen Spike. The Bouncer says, “Yeah I know the guy, Billy Idol wannabe.” Billy Idol was a punk with distinctive bleached blonde hair in the 1980s. Buffy mutters something about Billy actually stealing his look from Spike.

Buffy licking

details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess

In an interview with Brian Wilkinson at Millarworld.tv, James Marsters (Spike) revealed some behind the scenes trivia:

Later in the series, after Spike and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), began their unlikely screen romance, Marsters recalls one bizarre instance where the script called for him to lick Gellar. “I couldn’t do it,” he says to laughter. “Sarah was so funny. She said “you could rape me last year, but you can’t lick me?” “I told her that I loved her like a sister, warts and all. Kissing is one thing, but licking?”

Comforting

details | 2 comments | suggested by Jess

In the season four episode 4.18 Where The Wild Things Are, Spike and Anya talked about getting revenge on Drusilla and Xander. They also bonded over the loss of their respective powers. They abandoned the ‘revenge’ idea and instead Anya took Spike to a party. Spike “comforted” Anya again in 6.18 Entropy after her break-up with Xander. They mention the event again in 7.08 Sleeper and 7.15 Get It Done.

CSI

details | 6 comments | suggested by Jess

In 7.08 Sleeper, Xander says:

“OK, let’s look at this objectively. Figure it out in a cold, impersonal, CSI-like manner ’cause we’re a couple of carpet fibres away from a case.”

He’s referring to the CBS TV show CSI or Crime Scene Investigation, which is based on forensic investigation.

Doubles

details | 3 comments | suggested by Jess

There have been a number of episodes with two of the same character in one shot. Willow met her vampire self in 3.16 Doppelgangland, Xander had a double in 5.03 The Replacement, we see two Spikes in 7.08 Sleeper and the First takes on Buffy’s form in numerous episodes, including 7.22 Chosen.

Early One Morning

details | 4 comments | suggested by Jess

Early One Morning is the song which the First uses to trigger evil Spike in season seven. It is an old folk song famously sung by Sarah Brightman, who released it on her album ‘The Trees They Grow So High’ (Released in 1988, 1995 and 1998). The song was also used as the theme song to a Canadian kid’s TV show called The Friendly Giant that ran from 1958-1985. The original lyrics of Early One Morning are:

Early one morning,
Just as the sun was rising,
I heard a maid sing,
In the valley below.

O, don’t deceive me,
O, never leave me,
How could you use
A poor maiden so?

(Chorus)

Remember the vows,
That you made to your Mary,
Remember the bower,
Where you vowed to be true,

(Chorus)

Thus sang the poor maiden,
Her sorrows bewailing,
Thus sang the poor maid,
In the valley below.

(Chorus)

Erik Betts

details | add a comment | suggested by Jess

Erik was a regular Buffy and Angel stuntman and is married to Melissa Barker, who played one of Buffy’s stunt doubles from season five onwards. Erik appeared in many Buffy episodes including 5.04 Out Of My Mind (as Agent Brown), 5.12 Checkpoint (as a Knight of Byzantium), 6.05 Life Serial (Predator Demon), 6.08 Tabula Rasa (as a vampire), 7.08 Sleeper (as a vampire), 7.16 Storyteller (as a vampire), 7.15 Get It Done (as a demon), 7.21 End Of Days (as a Turok-Han) and 7.22 Chosen (as a Turok-Han). Erik also played The Keeper in the Angel episode 4.21 Peace Out.
He has been a regular stuntman for Alias, She Spies, The Shield, V.I.P., Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, The Jamie Foxx Show (stunt double for Jamie Foxx) and Martial Law. Erik was a stuntman for the movies 18 Fingers of Death!, Crash, Torque (stunt double for Ice Cube), Bringing Down the House and Cradle 2 the Grave. He was the gymnastics trainer for Wild Wild West.
In 1996, Erik broke his right hip and thigh whilst taping a kids TV show. He was in intensive care for two weeks, had five surgeries and almost three years of rehab to get fit again. Erik was director Sam Raimi’s choice for doubling actor Tobey Maquire for Spider-Man, but was told by the costume designer that his shoulders were too large for the costume.

Give it away

details | add a comment | suggested by MagicBone

In 7.11 Showtime, Anya says,

“You’re rejecting my offer of sexual bribery? What am I, a leper in this town? I can’t even give it away.”

Even though she is talking to Torg, the trash-taking-out demon, she is also referencing 7.08 Sleeper. In that episode, when she was trying not make Spike suspicious of her snooping through his room, she said that she was there to have sex with him but he refused her.

Here for sex

details | add a comment | suggested by Jess

The following line was in the original script for the episode 7.08 Sleeper:

Anya: “I… am here, obviously, because of the reason which I am about to tell you, with the following words, and that reason is…ush, clearly and obviously too, um… sex.”

Is it the hair?

details | add a comment | suggested by ormaybemidgets

In 7.11 Showtime, after the demon turns Anya’s sexual offer down, she says:

“It’s the hair, right? Not attractive?”

This is a reference to 7.08 Sleeper, when Spike turns her down and they have the following conversation:

Anya: “I got it. No problem, I understand. You think I’m fat.”
Spike: “What?”
Anya: “Well, it’s either that or the haircut.”

And probably also a reference to the many hair styles, cuts, and colours, that Anya’s had during her run on the show.

Kevin Daniels

details | add a comment | suggested by Jess

Kevin Daniels, who played the bouncer who Buffy speaks to in 7.08 Sleeper, has also been in Frasier, JAG, Law & Order and the movie Kate & Leopold.

London, England

details | 1 comment | suggested by Jess

Here is a stage direction from the script for 7.08 Sleeper:

EXT. LONDON-DAY-ESTABLISHING
The bustling city. Sure, what the hell. Haven’t we seen enough of the countryside? And if nobody recognizes it, super in one of those “London, England” title cards. That’s the ticket. Anyway…

Pavlov’s Bell

details | 3 comments | suggested by DanG

In the episode 7.08 Sleeper, Aimee Mann sings her song “Pavlov’s Bell”. The title of this song references Pavlov’s experiment with dogs, where he would ring a bell before giving them food. It got to the stage that every time the bell would ring the dogs would salivate in anticipation of the food, even when none was given to them. Thus the dogs were conditioned to the trigger of the bell, much like this episode shows that Spike has been conditioned to a trigger.

Rob Nagle

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Rob Nagle, who played the Watcher in London in 7.08 Sleeper, appeared in American Pie: The Wedding, which starred Alyson Hannigan. He played the ‘Floral Assistant’.

Robert Duncan

details | 1 comment | suggested by emersoneells

Robert Duncan was a composer on Buffy for much of season seven. He wrote Spike’s predatory vampire theme in 7.08 Sleeper. Robert also wrote the “Willow/Kennedy Love Theme” from 7.13 The Killer In Me; and the “Hell School” theme which appeared in 7.16 Storyteller. Robert’s other compositions for Buffy include “Prokaryote Stone” from 7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me and “Something About Buffy” that accompanies Xander’s speech in 7.18 Dirty Girls. His most famous compositions however appear in the series finale 7.22 Chosen. Robert wrote both “Every Girl, A Slayer” theme that accompanies Buffy’s speech and “The Final Fight” that appears on both the UK and US versions of the soundtrack Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Radio Sunnydale.
A selection of Robert’s original compositions for Buffy are available on his for download at his official website.
Robert has also worked as a composer on other television shows including Tru Calling (with Eliza Dushku), Point Pleasant, and The Unit.

Taste her

details | 1 comment | suggested by Meghann

The First tries to get both Angel and Spike to drink from Buffy. First in 3.10 Amends:

The First as Jenny: “She wants you to taste her. Think of the peace. You’ll never have to see us again.”

And in 7.08 Sleeper:

The First as Spike: “You know what I want you to do. They’re waiting for you. Take her, taste her, make her weak.”

Unsuspicious Spike

details | 6 comments | suggested by Angel_cakes

It seems strange that Spike doesn’t comment on why Anya is in Xander’s apartment on her own in 7.08 Sleeper. After he ‘turns her down’ in the bedroom, she goes into the living room and seemingly spends the rest of the day in there. Why didn’t Spike ask why she was still there?

[Goof] Anya’s arms

details | add a comment | suggested by blinkey

In the episode 7.08 Sleeper, when Xander is asking Anya to look over Spike in his apartment, Anya’s arms are by her side. Then, in a shot from her front, they’re on her hips. They then change back in a different shot without her moving them.